A Party for Gaius
by lindiloo02
Summary: It's Gaius's 70th Birthday and Merlin has planned a surprise party, despite Gaius's grumpy reaction it turned out to be the best idea ever. Short, sweet and fluffy also an attempt at humour. Merthur, M/A


Found this WIP on my laptop and finally decided to finish it.

Warning, tooth rotting fluff and my bad attempt at humour.

As always I don't own Merlin. No beta so all mistakes are my own.

* * *

Merlin visited his Uncle Gaius at his home once a week for tea, they talked, had dinner and talked some more. Filling each other in on the past week and discussing work and the business they both ran together.

Gaius runs the only pharmacy in the small town of Ealdor and took Merlin on to help out and eventually take over, well once Merlin had finished his studies, which he was doing on a part time basis. And then of course Gaius would have to actually retire which Merlin couldn't see happening. Gaius works far too hard to ever give it up. Merlin knew that Gaius would always be pottering about the pharmacy until his dying day which he hoped wouldn't be for many more years.

Lately though Gaius has been doing a lot of reminiscing, with his 70th Birthday around the corner Merlin thought it was understandable to be feeling a bit nostalgic.

Gaius seemed to have a few regrets over his life. The main ones being never proposing to a woman named Alice and loosing contact with most of his friends. Gaius still had friends of course, just not as many, or as close and none that would require him to leave the pharmacy or his small flat above the pharmacy.

Gaius had taken to talking about his past friends more and more, telling Merlin all kinds of stories he had never heard before, including a few about his parents childhood which had Merlin in stitches.

As far as Merlin could tell nothing nasty or bad had ever happened, it was just a case of friends moving on, or away, or simply just drifting apart. But it made Merlin sad that these people were no longer around for Gaius or Gaius for them.

As Merlin was coming back from the bathroom one day he noticed Gaius's address book on a small table in the hallway. It was filled with names and numbers a lot of which he had never heard off. An idea sparked in Merlin's head, he quickly checked that Gaius was preoccupied and used his phone to sneakily take pictures of each page so that he could go through it properly later. Merlin grinned to himself as he tucked his phone away in his back pocket, his mind was already whirling with plans.

* * *

It took some doing, calling in a lot of favours and promising many more in return, and a now severely depleted savings account, not that there was much in there to begin with. But Merlin finally managed to hire the function room at the local club and organise a DJ. Between his friends and flat mate Merlin was confident that they could get a decent buffet together with some decorations, all he needed to do now was sort the guest list out.

It was harder than Merlin thought it would be. A lot of the numbers were no longer in use or had a completely different person on the other end. He tried to look them up on the internet, but only had a little success there. Most of them were probably as old fashioned as Gaius, who didn't like computers or technology much. 'There is nothing wrong with good old fashioned pen and paper, why mess with something that has worked for hundreds of decades?' Gaius would say.

But in the end and Merlin was quite pleased with the result. Although he was extremely disappointed that he couldn't find a single trace of the one person he really wanted, Alice, he had still managed to get quite a few people together. There was just one or two names left to try, one of which was an Arthur Pendragon. The name Pendragon was familiar to him he had heard Gaius mention it enough times lately.

However getting a number for Arthur Pendragon himself proved very difficult. Googling Arthur's name turned up hundreds of results, it seemed the Pendragon's were big in the business world. Pendragon Industries had a hold in just about everything, a finger in every pie. There was an assistant or receptionist on the end of every number he tried who loved putting him on hold. In the end Merlin had to pretend to be a friend of the family to get a number that he believed to be Arthur's mobile. Technically he was a friend of the family, well a nephew of a friend of the family so it wasn't a complete lie, just an exaggeration.

So he crossed all fingers and toes as and dialled and hoped for the best that this number was finally the right number.

"Arthur Pendragon" A curt sharp voice answered, Merlin released the breath that he didn't know he was holding in relief.

"Hi, my name is Merlin Emrys and I'm cal-"

"Sorry, I'm not interested in anything you're selling. Good day." And the line went dead before Merlin could say anything more. Merlin was not going to give now, and quickly dialled the number again.

"Arthur Pendragon" The same stiff voice answered.

"Hi, Merlin again, I'm n-"

"Look!" Arthur said, sounding annoyed "I said I'm not interested, if you call again there _Will_ be consequences." The line went dead again. However this only encouraged Merlin further and immediately hit the redial button. It only rang once before it was answered.

"Right that's it, I warned you, I want the name of your mana-"

"CHEEEEEEEEEEEESE" Merlin cut in loudly, dragging out the word. There was a very brief moment of silence on the other end before Arthur quickly recovered.

"I beg your pardon?"

"I'm not calling to sell you anything, I'm calling for a personal reason." Merlin said, relieved to have got a sentence in.

"Then why didn't you say so?"

"I would have done, had you given me the chance to, you prat!"

"Prat?!" Arthur exclaimed. "You can't call me that, do you know who I am?"

"You're Arthur Pendragon" Merlin replied confidently.

"Yes"

"You're still a Prat" Merlin said simply.

"Who the hell are you?" Arthur replied angrily.

"Do you know a Gaius Wilson?" Merlin asked ignoring Arthur's question.

"Yes, Why?"

"Well it's his 70th in a few weeks, and we are having a bit of a do. I'm calling to invite you."

"Oh" Arthur replied a little calmer "But what has that got to do with cheese?"

"Nothing"

"Nothing? Then why did you say it?" Arthur asked, sounding more confused than anything else.

"I just said it to get you to shut up long enough for me to get a word in, in my experience the best way to do that, is to say a completely random word and stun people in to silence." Merlin explained. "It can work as an ice breaker too, gets a giggle and often starts a conversation." Merlin continued when there was no response from Arthur.

"That's the most idiotic thing I've ever heard." Arthur replied, but his voice was no longer sharp and held a hint of amusement.

"It worked on you didn't it? Just be grateful I didn't use the word sex. That one works every single time."

"I bet it does" Merlin heard Arthur start to laugh then tried to cover it with a cough.

"Hey, while I have you on the phone, do you know an Uther Pendragon?" Merlin asked hoping to kill two birds with one call.

"Obviously, it's in the name Merlin, he is my father."

"Oh okay, I don't suppose you could save me a phone call and pass on the invitation for me please?"

"Not scared of my father are you Merlin?" Arthur teased, whose voice was now rather sexy now it had lost the sharp edge to it.

"No," Merlin rebutted quickly "Can I expect a similar greeting from him?"

"Most likely," Arthur said, amusement clear in his voice now.

"Hmmmmm, well in that case I think my word for him will be penis-"

"No, No, that's okay, I will tell him," Arthur quickly cut in.

Merlin laughed making his "Thank you Arthur" sound high pitch and a little nasal.

"You realise you sounded very camp and gay then," Arthur laughed.

"Really?" Merlin asked. "Wow that's a relief, with a sexy voice like yours, I really don't want you thinking I'm straight."

"Even if you are a Prat," Merlin added into the stunned silence.

After another moment of silence, Merlin laughed "See you at the party Arthur, it should be lots of fun, I'm really looking forward to meeting you." Merlin hung up before Arthur could recover, grinning madly, now he was really looking forward to the party.

* * *

Merlin texted Arthur and everyone else the party details of when and where.

The plan was to take Gaius out with his mother and father for a meal in his favourite restaurant, before taking him to the local club.

Will wanted everyone to meet at the same time so that they could all jump out and shout surprise. But Merlin soon put a stop to that Gaius already has some heart issues jumping and yelling at him would most likely give Gaius a heart attack. So they decided on a gentle approach and brought Gaius to the club and told everyone else to be there around 8pm when Gaius would already be in the building.

Gaius was certainly surprised, but unfortunately for Merlin not in a good way. "I don't believe it! What the hell is this?" Gaius shouted, when they entered the main hall and found half of Ealdor already waiting and drinking.

"I will leave you to explain this one son." His father said, clamping his hand down on Merlin's shoulder. Merlin caught a quick look of encouragement from his mother before she was dragged away by his father towards the bar.

"You shouldn't have, you really really shouldn't have. How could you arrange something like this behind my back when you knew I just wanted a quiet night in? Why would you arrange something like this?" Gaius demanded, glaring at Merlin. Merlin hated it when Gaius looked at him like that. Gaius had mastered the look of disappointment even without the help of his eyebrows which always had Merlin feeling like a naughty little school boy. But this time Merlin was confident that he had done the right thing, he just needed Gaius to see that.

"It's a party Gaius," Merlin replied meekly.

"I can see that Merlin, but why? I didn't want a party, I didn't want a fuss, you knew that, I'm too old for parties especially surprise parties."

"You are 70 not dead Gaius, and there is no such thing as too old for a party." Merlin retorted, regaining his confidence, "You will be fine once you start to mingle, you keep talking about all your old friends, I tried to get most of the here for you. Everyone wanted to do this for you Gaius, it was no fuss honestly." Merlin explained, he was convinced that Gaius would enjoy himself once he relaxed. "Please Gaius just give it a chance, you will have a good time, I promise."

"Fine," Gaius huffed, "You better be right about this Merlin."

"Of course I am, trust me I know what I am doing." Merlin grinned, giving Gaius a gentle push towards the crowd.

"That's what worries me Merlin."

An hour in and most of the guests had arrived, but Merlin was still waiting on the Pendragon's whom he felt were the key guests, they were the main people that Gaius kept talking about over the past few months, and would hopefully change Gaius's mind about the party.

Merlin was sat patiently at the bar glancing to the doorway every five seconds. Not that he would recognise Arthur or the rest of the Pendragon's, he had no idea what they looked like and wished he had done more research on them. But Merlin felt certain that after the phone call Arthur would seek him out.

"MERLIN!" Came a loud shout from behind him, shocking him from his musings. Merlin had to grip the bar to prevent himself from falling off his stool. "What on God's green earth possessed you to invite Grunhilda?!" Gaius shouted.

Merlin turned to face Gaius. He did not look happy or pleased or looked as if he was enjoying himself in any way shape or form. Oddly Gaius actually looked slightly dishevelled, almost as if he had been molested. Merlin's heart sank to his stomach. He had hoped Gaius would start to enjoy himself at least a little bit.

"She was in your address book."

"That didn't mean you had to invite her, I put a lot of names in that book that doesn't mean I'm friends with them or even like them at all for that matter."

"What? Why would you put them in your address book if you didn't want to have any contact with them? You're just mad I got you out of the house and forcing you to socialise."

"I get out and socialise just fine, there was no need to create a spectacle like this"

"Ungrateful ass," Merlin muttered under his breath.

"What was that?"

"I said I should have asked," Merlin lied.

"Damn right you should have, make sure it doesn't happen again"

Merlin tried to keep the hurt look from his face, judging from the way Gaius's shoulders sagged he didn't think he succeeded.

"Oh don't worry about that Gaius nothing like this will ever happen again. Shall I call the rest of the guests and cancel?" Merlin asked going on the defensive.

"If you wouldn't mind, yes"

"Of course I don't mind Gaius, this was a piece of cake to arrange and it took no time at all" Merlin replied sarcastically, whilst pulling out his phone and starting to dial. "Just give me a moment." Not giving Gaius the chance to speak.

The call connected and was answered quickly.

"Arthur Pendragon." Merlin rolled his eyes at the greeting, what was wrong with a simple hello?

"Hello Arthur Pendragon" Merlin teased. "I'm callin-"

"Give me that." Gaius snapped, as he snatched the phone out of Merlin's hands.

"Arthur? Arthur Pendragon?" Unfortunately Merlin was no longer able to hear the other side of the conversation. He could however see a spark of delight in Gaius's eyes.

"We?"

"Yes, yes of course it is, it will be so good to see you and your parents again." Gaius finally smiled his first smile of the evening.

Merlin snatched Will's phone from him as he passed them. "Oi!"

"I will give it you back in a moment." Merlin explained quickly and made a big show of dialling in front of Gaius, while Will waited impatiently beside him.

"Hello is that Geoffrey Monmouth?" Merlin replied into the phone ignoring Will.

"Got to go Arthur see you soon" Gaius rushed into Merlin's phone before hanging up.

"It's merlin from Gai-"

Gaius snatched the phone from Merlin again "Hold for a moment please." Gaius said into the phone and quickly covered the mouthpiece with his hand.

"Alright merlin you made your point."

Merlin slowly crossed his arms over his chest, giving Gaius his own look and waited.

Gaius sighed, his facial expression changing to show his remorse. "I'm sorry Merlin pay no attention to me I'm just being a-"

"Cantankerous old fart?"

"Well I wouldn't put it in such colourful terms, but yes I'm being a grumpy old man today and I'm sorry I shouldn't have taken that out on you. I do appreciate what you have done here today, thank you."

Merlin couldn't stay angry with Gaius for long and found himself blushing at Gaius's words, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand, "It's ok Gaius, really"

"No it's not. I took my stubborn attitude out on you, I shouldn't have done that, especially when all you were trying to do was help. You have a heart of gold Merlin, don't ever change that, no matter how stubborn I get."

Merlin smiled, "Don't worry Gaius I won't, now go back to your guests I will try to distract Grunhilda for you."

"Thank you Merlin," Gaius replied. Leaving to continue his phone call with Geoffrey.

"My phone!" Will protested.

"Don't worry you will get it back, it's not as if Gaius is going to steal it."

"Not the point," Will huffed. "I'm waiting for a call from a girl I met last night."

"I'm sure you will survive ten minutes without it and you're always waiting for a call from one girl or another."

"It's not my fault the girls find my charm irresistible." Will grinned, puffing out his chest.

"Charm? Is that what you call it? I thought it was more like desperation." Merlin laughed.

"Aww you're just jealous that you're not getting any."

"Like I have the time for that. Now help me find this Grunhilda woman, do you know what she looks like?"

"She's the big woman in the big green dress, looks a bit like a toad." Will grinned, before chasing after Gaius to retrieve his phone.

"Right thanks for that that helps a lot." Merlin shouted at Will's back and went to look for Grunhilda.

Merlin found Grunhilda easily enough, Will was right she did look like a toad. He suffered Grunhilda for a good twenty minutes. Twenty very long minutes of Grunhilda waxing poetry on the benefits of older men. Merlin began to understand Gaius's dishevelled look after five minutes. It was Twenty excruciating minutes later that he managed to distract her by throwing George at her. George was one of the dullest most boring person he had ever met. He bet Grunhilda that even she couldn't liven him up, which thankfully was a challenge she took with great enthusiasm. Merlin wasn't sure who to feel the most sorry for Grunhilda or George.

Once Merlin escaped he headed straight back for his spot at the bar. "Give me a whisky please Lance, I need it after that." Merlin asked as he dropped himself onto the stool. Merlin had managed to convince his flatmate to serve at the bar tonight, one of the many favours he cashed in.

"Just the one mind." Lance replied, while he poured Merlin his drink. "We don't want you too drunk before Arthur arrives."

"What makes you think I'm waiting for Arthur?" Merlin replied innocently.

"The fact that you have spoken of Arthur near constantly for the last two weeks."

"I have not." Merlin denied, "I think you are confusing me with you and Gwen."

Merlin grinned as Lance blushed, "Not only have I heard you repeat your phone conversation several times Merlin, so much that even I know it word for word. But you have also been going on and on about what a stuck up prat he is. And then you have been wondering, out loud, about what he looks like, about what kind of music he would like, what he likes to do, what his job is like." Now it was Merlin's turn to blush, "He could also be the reason why it took you an hour to get ready and why you are wearing your lucky shirt."

Merlin ducked his head to hide his blush. It was true. He had taken that long to get ready, he had practically emptied his wardrobe in an attempt to find something to wear before he settled on his lucky blue shirt. He always got so many compliments with this shirt. The deep royal blue contrasted perfectly with his pale skin and brought out his blue eyes.

He wasn't sure why he wanted to impress Arthur so much, just that he did, it was a feeling in his gut.

"Yeah, well, you do the same thing every time you go out with Gwen and you have been dating for almost a year."

"You want to date Arthur?" Lance asked surprised.

"NO! I didn't say that." Merlin said attempting to fight down a now beetroot blush.

"But you implied it." Lance grinned.

"But I don't know anything about him at all, other than he is a prat, why would I want to date someone like that?"

"You tell me Merlin." Lance laughed.

"MERLIN!"

"Saved by the bellow." Merlin muttered, and quickly throwing back the last of his drink before going to find out what Gaius wanted.

He found Gaius by the main doors with a trio of new guest who had clearly just arrived, and judging the smile on Gaius's face these guests were some of the ones Merlin had been waiting for.

There was a man who looked to be in his mid-fifty's with his arm linked with a woman appeared to be around mid to late forties, Merlin assumed the woman was the older man's wife. The woman was a stunner. Her pale yellow dress highlighting all the curves of her body. Merlin wouldn't be surprised if she was a former super model.

There was a younger man behind the pair but Merlin couldn't see him properly, just a flash of blonde hair.

The couple were dressed very elegantly and had clearly gone all out. They were overdressed compared to everyone else. Merlin didn't know much about fashion brands but he could tell that the man's suit probably cost more than Merlin made in a year, if not more. He didn't even want to think about their jewellery. They wouldn't be out of place at a royal ball.

But most importantly they were both reflecting Gaius's warm smile.

They all greeted Gaius with smiles and hugs while Gaius beamed back with a great smile Merlin had rarely seen on Gaius. Merlin found himself smiling too as he watched the warm reunion when Gaius looked up at him.

"Merlin! Come here, there is someone I want you to meet." Gaius called. "This is Uther Pendragon and his wife Ygraine" Gaius introduced the couple indicating to each of them in turn. "And this is my nephew Merlin." Gaius finished. Merlin smiled and held his hand out to greet them properly.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, I have heard so many stories about you."

"Not too many I hope, I know how most of those stories go" Uther laughed, "This is our son Arthur" Uther introduced, standing to one side to reveal a tall, gorgeous blonde.

Arthur was more or less the same height as Merlin but his shoulders were much broader. Arthur's body was definitely more defined, the complete opposite to Merlin's skinny frame. The perfectly fitted expensive suit only helped to emphasise the muscles underneath. Topped off with sun bleached blonde hair and bright blue eyes that reminded Merlin of the summer sky. There was a hint of a smirk playing on Arthur's full lips as Merlin continued to stare.

So this was the prat on the phone Merlin thought as he held out his hand, an extremely good looking prat. "Arthur," Merlin greeted.

Arthur looked Merlin up and down before accepting his hand with a full on smirk. " _Merlin_ " he purred.

"It's nice to put a face to the voice." Merlin replied with a smirk of his own.

"I hope I have lived up to your expectations."

"Well your ego certainly does." Merlin laughed.

"Merlin!" Gaius admonished, clipping Merlin around the ear, "Don't be rude."

But if anything Arthur's smile just got wider and he still hadn't let go of Merlin's hand.

"I hope you don't mind but we brought someone else with us." Ygraine interrupted tactfully.

"I don't believe it! Alice?" Gaius gasped, when an elderly woman with a coat over her arms appeared at the doors. Alice? Was this the woman he couldn't find? The woman that Gaius regretted not proposing too? She certainly seemed nice, wearing a long burgundy dress that was heavily sequined on the bodice. On anyone else it would have looked tacky but Alice managed to pull it off nicely.

"Sorry I took so long, it took me a while to find the bathroom."

"Oh no that's quite alright my dear," Gaius replied quickly before anyone else could, rushing to take her coat. Merlin could see the love in Gaius's eyes, clearly time had done nothing to diminish his feelings for Alice. Merlin hoped that they would hit it off again, then Gaius would never be alone again.

"Come on Merlin let's go to the bar and leave the old folk to catch up." Arthur said, tugging at Merlin's sleeve.

"Oi, who are you calling old?" Ygraine joked.

"Sorry mother, that obviously didn't include you, you are far too beautiful to ever be considered old." Arthur replied quickly, giving his mother a quick peck on the cheek.

"Nice save, Arthur" Ygraine laughed, "Now off with you two."

* * *

"So you're the idiot?" Arthur said once they got to the bar.

"And you're the prat."

"Seriously Merlin you can't call me that." Arthur said fondly, shaking his head.

"Why not? It's what you are."

"Drink?"

"Beer please."

Arthur grinned looking around for the barman. Lance was a bit further down the bar with Gwen. "Service." Arthur called stiffly when he realised Lance wasn't paying attention to him.

Not wanting to see the return of Arthur's pratishness Merlin put his hand gently onto Arthur's arm. Merlin had to resist the temptation to squeeze and have a feel at Arthur's forearm. "It's no good Arthur," Merlin said with a mock sigh. "Guinevere has his attention now, he's done for." Merlin cleared his throat and put on the deepest dullest voice he could to narrate their actions. "And here we have the mating ritual of the Guinevere and the Lancelot, watch as they stare longing into each other's eyes. The Lancelot will reach over and touch the Guinevere's hand, initiating contact. Watch how the Guinevere blushes signalling her interest. If you look closely you could almost see the love hearts in their eyes…OW!" Merlin cried, covering his ear that had just been smacked by the lightening reflexes of the Guinevere.

"Merlin!"

"Sorry Gwen," Merlin grinned, relishing in the sound of Arthur's laughter.

"No you're not." Gwen challenged, thankfully Gwen looked more amused than annoyed.

"No I'm not." Merlin laughed, rubbing his ear.

"Just you wait until it's your turn, and I will tease you relentlessly." Gwen threatened.

"Sorry about that." Lance blushed, addressing Arthur. "What can I get you?"

"Two beers please." Arthur beamed.

 _ **Epilogue**_

It was a year later and Merlin still says that the party was the best thing to ever happen, for which he took full credit for. In the past year there was not one, not two but three weddings and Merlin was best man for all three.

First there was Gaius's and Alice's wedding. The two had hit it off again immediately and deciding that enough time had already been wasted and wanting to make the most of the years they had left, they married six weeks later.

Then there was Lance and Gwen's wedding, which came as no surprise to anyone, but everyone was extremely pleased for them. They took a page out of Gaius's book and married six months after the party.

The third wedding came a big surprise to everyone, but so was finding out they were together. It was the end of the party and they were collecting their coats from the cloakroom. But when Merlin opened the door Grunhilda and George tumbled out, looking like they had dressed in a hurry. They married less than a month ago.

As for Merlin and Arthur, they too hit it off instantly and Merlin was certain he was head over heels by the end of the party. They decided to take things slow however, not wanting to rush things. They had just moved in together and Merlin wouldn't change a thing. Of course it was not all sunshine and daisy's they still argued like cat and dog but the make-up sex more than made up for it.

Merlin thought that his surprise party was the best idea he had had, ever!


End file.
